SOAR Initiative Backed By $1M Investment

A national community service organization is investing $1M in eastern Kentucky to help the region recover from the downturn in the coal industry.

The money from the Corporation for National and Community Service will hire 52 full-time workers to recruit volunteers for 16 nonprofit groups on issues ranging from education and poverty.

It is one of the first programs out of Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), an initiative founded by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers to help eastern Kentucky. Beshear and Rogers also announced Monday$312,000 in technical assistance from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

Eastern Kentucky has lost more than 7,000 direct coal mining jobs since Jan. 1, 2012.